Detectives working to find missing Madeleine McCann have given their counterparts in Portugal a new list of potential suspects and have urged them to investigate them

More than 20 new suspects in the Madeleine McCann investigation have been identified by British police.

A Scotland Yard review of the bungled Portuguese inquiry into the three-year-old’s disappearance in 2007 has uncovered dozens of fresh leads, it emerged yesterday.

They include ‘forensic opportunities’ and several ‘people of interest’, including Britons, who have not been eliminated from the case.

Madeleine’s parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, are said to be ‘greatly encouraged’ by the developments.

But the Mail has learned that behind the scenes, a major diplomatic row is brewing because the Portuguese authorities are adamant they will not reopen the inquiry.

Officials in Lisbon have told their British counterparts that under Portuguese laws, they can reopen the case only if there is new evidence.

But Yard chiefs – who want the Portuguese to agree to a joint investigation – say their new leads could, if properly explored, result in new evidence and possibly the Maddie mystery being solved.

One well-placed source described the deadlock as ‘a Mexican stand-off’.

‘It’s a chicken-and-egg situation. Significant new evidence can be found if the leads uncovered by the Yard are investigated. There are two major obstacles to a joint investigation: the money to fund it in Portugal and the loss of face they would suffer from having to agree to such an inquiry.’

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It is understood high-level discussions have taken place in the UK about the possibility of Scotland Yard launching its own investigation. British police do not have jurisdiction in Portugal, but they have the right to investigate and prosecute any British suspects linked to Madeleine’s disappearance.

Still hopeful: Mrs McCann returned to Portugal this month with her mother, Susan Healy, six years on

This picture shows Kate and Gerry McCann marking the fifth anniversary of their daughter's disappearance with an 'aged' photo of how she might look - on the sixth anniversary this year they said they'd not given up

Should the Met decide to launch its own investigation, it is likely to send a formal letter of request to the Portuguese authorities – seeking its assistance in its inquiries.

Last night a Yard spokesman confirmed a high-level delegation of officers travelled to Portugal in March, but he refused to comment on what discussions took place.

The senior detective who has overseen the Met’s two-year review of the case yesterday confirmed his officers had drawn up a list of people who they say are ‘of interest’. Detective Chief Superintendent Hamish Campbell, the head of Scotland Yard’s Homicide and Serious Crime Command, said there were a ‘good number’ of individuals who should be questioned.

He would not disclose the precise number but sources told the Mail that at least 20 potential suspects – including a number of Britons who were in the Algarve at the time of Madeleine’s disappearance six years ago – had not been properly eliminated.

Mr Campbell urged the Portuguese authorities to investigate the new leads.

He said: ‘There are a lot of people of interest. There are people who could be properly explored further, if only to be eliminated.’

Madeleine went missing from her family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in Portugal in 2007 as her parents dined with friends nearby. The shambolic Portuguese inquiry was shelved in 2008 but Scotland Yard launched a Home Office-funded review of the case in 2011 following the intervention of David Cameron.

Last year the officer in day-to-day charge of the review, Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood, said his team had identified 195 potential leads after examining a huge bundle of material.

Mr Campbell said it was ‘perfectly probable’ that information which could identify the suspect responsible for Madeleine’s disappearance was already in the Portuguese files.

He reiterated a claim that Madeleine could still be alive. He said: ‘You only have to look at the case in Cleveland, Ohio, and the European cases. Of course there is a possibility she is alive.

‘But the key is to investigate the case and, alive or dead, we should be able to try and discern what happened.’ The McCanns, of Rothley, Leicestershire, have been kept closely informed of Scotland Yard’s review – codenamed Operation Grange – over the past two years.

A spokesman for the couple said: ‘They have been encouraged from the moment the review started and are now greatly encouraged that police have drawn up a short list of people who they believe are of interest to the inquiry.’

A source close to the couple said: ‘While they don’t want to raise their hopes too much, they are buoyed up by these revelations.’

A Home Office source said: ‘Clearly not all the 20 potential suspects identified by the Met could be responsible for Madeleine’s disappearance. But the Yard are adamant that if they were running the inquiry here, these people would have been properly eliminated.’

The Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz in the Algarve from where Madeleine McCann was abducted in May 2007

Madeleine McCann as she looked when she went missing, left, and how she would look now, right

DCS Campbell, who retired today as head of the Met's Homicide and Serious Crime Command, urged Portuguese police to act on the new list of potential suspects in the Madeleine McCann case